More than 3 times I've seen on Threads, there's a familiar saying that has become almost a truism: "I notice that talented people don't teach because they're too busy to have the time".
It creates a perfect portrait of bosses drowning in million-dollar projects, meeting all night and day with no leisure to bother with classroom teaching. But if you look a bit deeper, you'll see this saying is usually uttered by three groups of people:
those who never intended to teach in the first place
those who aren't skilled enough that someone would be willing to pay to learn from them
those who were scammed or heard stories of others being scammed by low-quality courses, so they developed a defensive mindset toward the entire market.
An expert teaching is not because they have free time or nothing to do. It's an intentional trade-off equation. Before hastily agreeing with the above prejudice, try flipping the issue with a few realistic perspectives below, questioning whether talented people are really too busy to teach.
#1 Not everyone who does something well knows how to teach it
There's an obvious truth: doing your job well and teaching others to do it well are two completely different skill sets. Many Employee/Boss of The Year candidates can come up with solutions very quickly, have sharp thinking, but when asked to sit down and write out a clear step-by-step framework that a junior colleague can understand and apply, they'll be confused. I'm sure you've heard of or experienced many bosses who are very skilled, but working with them doesn't help you develop much.
Albert Einstein once said something like: "If you can't explain something to a six-year-old child, then you don't understand it yourself either".
A Planning Director can write a sharp creative brief, but struggles to explain why this insight is better than that insight, **why choose this communication strategy or why they arrived at this competitive landscape. That process requires pedagogical skills and systems thinking – things that not every skilled professional naturally possesses.
It's not that skilled people are too busy to teach; they understand that they either don't have or haven't yet developed the pedagogical skills and systems thinking needed to teach.
#2 Teaching is self-reflection for your own thinking
Truly talented people don't see teaching as one-way knowledge distribution, but rather as a way to reflect on what they already know. Standing in front of a classroom, you're forced to face sometimes naive but piercing questions from students. Questions like "Why do we need a creative way-in when we already have a communication strategy, can we skip it?" force the teacher to flip the issue, re-examine the correctness of what they do every day. It helps them patch holes in their thinking that they'd never notice if they just buried themselves in project work.
It's not that skilled people are too busy to teach; it's that they haven't yet seen the value of self-reflection through teaching.
#3 Trading busyness for long-term leverage
True, skilled people are busy. But they accept being busier when teaching because they see the bigger picture. Standing in class and sharing knowledge is one of the most powerful ways to solidify personal brand.
Moreover, the classroom is an excellent source of talent. Instead of struggling to read hundreds of CVs, interview, and trial candidates to find suitable staff, a teaching boss gets dozens of hours to observe the thinking, attitude, and problem-solving ability of each student.
I've also successfully matched some of my students with agencies/clients when they needed planners, and the students themselves have referred me to suitable customers. To brag a bit, I now have about 300 students across all courses, nearly 1/3 of them from my direct classes.
It's not that skilled people are too busy to teach; it's that they haven't yet wanted to trade a bit more busyness to build personal brand, expand relationships, and nurture young talent.
So how do you avoid being "scammed" in the course market?
Where there's smoke, there's fire. The above prejudice exists partly because the current market is too "high-end at the top, low-end at the bottom". People selling hollow courses, promoting vague theories appear everywhere (I once wrote about the course market, you can read it again here).
Speaking of theory, we need to be clear: Academic theory is not bad at all. It's excellent and necessary if your goal is to do research, teach at university, or have solid foundational knowledge. But if you need to survive selling yourself to capital, you need practical experience from people currently in the trenches.
So how do you choose wisely? Here are 3 core criteria:
1. Research their Track Records (Actual Results)
Ignore the titles, look directly at the work they've done and whether it's truly relevant to what they teach. If someone teaches AI but has never built an AI product, just compiling existing materials to teach, then you should just watch YouTube for free. If someone teaches Creative but only did Social Content before, that's not enough. Or teaching Strategic Planning but only did Campaign Planning until now, that doesn't work.
Take the effort to stalk the channels where they're active and ask for references from people in the industry – that's the easiest way. This industry is small, so with some effort asking around, you'll find out.
2. Read how they think through the content they share
Follow how they write blogs and create social media content. Do they have a unique, sharp perspective and dare to debate? Or are they just rehashing hollow advice like "You must understand your customers" or "inspire passion"?
Do their perspectives and viewpoints make you pause and think? Their writing style, how they argue and defend their views on social media is exactly the lens reflecting how they think at work. And it doesn't have to go viral to be a good perspective – anyone who plays Threads understands this.
3. Trust real reviews & feedback
If a course has no real reviews from students (or possibly fake reviews you can't spot), that's a red flag. I myself nearly registered for an investment course by a famous podcaster, I loved his podcast so much I almost signed up. Even though he's very famous, I couldn't find any reviews of the course at all. While I was hesitating, the student community (very civil) provided evidence about the poor course quality, mainly that knowledge from the internet was presented nicely and sold at too high a price. The incident was so big it made that person go into hiding even until now.
In summary, talented and busy people still teach. Keep your head cool and be more discerning when choosing whom to learn from, but never close the door to knowledge just because of crowd prejudice.
